The Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), the world’s leading standard – setting organization for the global jewelry and watch industry, launched an updated Human Rights Due Diligence Toolkit for its members and the wider industry.
The new toolkit includes significant upgrades, expanded scope and a full re-design from the original toolkit delivered in 2013. Member companies will find practical advice to help them meet the requirements of COP 6 Human Rights. The Toolkit will also be valuable for the wider industry to implement human rights due diligence (HRDD).
The toolkit features key enhancements, including context on Human Rights and what due diligence means for the industry. It provides practical steps to carry out due diligence, and how these steps can vary based on a company’s size and role. Each step includes a practical set of tools, including templates, forms, and checklists to simplify the Human Rights due diligence process as much as possible, particularly for smaller businesses.
“Human rights are mission critical, and essential to the work of the RJC,” said John Hall, Interim Executive Director. “At the RJC we put people and planet first – making a commitment to people working in the industry and the wider community. This toolkit is available for the entire industry and is designed to protect human rights both within the company and throughout the supply chain.”
This toolkit complements the RJC’s Code of Practices (CoP), the standard to which all RJC members are committed. The COP includes workplace health and safety, remuneration, non-discrimination and other provisions, which really define the meaning of human rights in a jewelry industry context. RJC members also commit to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. To download the new RJC Human Rights toolkit, visit Toolkits • Responsible Jewellery Council.
This toolkit is the latest edition to a wide variety of tools offered by the RJC to the wider industry including:
- The Gender Equality Toolkit
- The Retailer Toolkit
- The Small Business Sustainability Toolkit
- The Due Diligence toolkit for Diamonds and Colored Gemstones
- The Due Diligence toolkit for Precious Metals
With every toolkit RJC delivers, it recognizes and addresses a critical and timely, common need. Stakeholders want to know where jewelry comes from, how it is made and who has a hand in crafting it. The RJC deepens trust with consumers and confidence to our member companies by providing increasingly transparency into those areas.
